Holiday Season is Here!

So in the midst of my final fall teaching, I was also getting ready for the approaching holiday season. With Thanksgiving, I went with Mark and his family to their annual Thanksgiving dinner with family friends. The weekend previously was also his birthday, with all of the usual birthday celebrations, but we also were planning on camping in the Outerbanks of North Carolina in the days following Thanksgiving.

When the time came to head to North Carolina, we were both fighting colds and decided to cut our trip short by only going for a night and cut out the camping portion in favor of using free hotel points for a room (better than two sick people camping in the cold and rain). We did visit the Wright Brothers National Monument at Kitty Hawk, the giant sand dunes at Jockey's Ridge State Park, and Fort Raleigh National Historic Site (the location of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, on Manteo) before heading back to Williamsburg the next day. It was a good little trip and just the kind of mental vacation I needed going into the crazy pre-Christmas season. (photos: Mark in front of one of the many versions of the superstar monster truck, Grave Digger, at its headquarters, the "Digger's Dungeon;" the location of the first flights by the Wright Brothers (the metal track marks their flight path and the stone markers their landing spots); the monument to their achievements; and a statue of the famous photo of one of their first flights that visitors can pose with.)




(photos: The ginormous dunes at Jockey's Ridge State Park; just like why the Wright Brothers chose the Outer Banks for their flights, lots of people use the plentiful wind to fly kites; sunset over Albemarle Sound towards Manteo; the cold and windy ocean by our hotel; and some earthworks from one of the versions of the Lost Colony (but the colony's actual location is still unknown).)





After Thanksgiving, there were a few get-togethers with friends and also the annual staff Christmas Party. I joined an annual cookie-baking day with Mark's mom and her friends, coming home with about 10 dozen cookies. In the midst of all of this, I was still having to get shopping done before going home to Michigan. (photos: Tyler, Mark Summers, Matt, and (part of) Mark discussing Mark Summers' new congressional campaign -- since they looked the part, it seemed appropriate; and later, the staff escorting the candidate to his vehicle.)


The night before flying home, I got a call from Northwest Airlines informing me that they'd cancelled my flight and rescheduled it for a day later. I was up almost all night trying to get a hold of someone to see if there was an earlier flight out of Richmond, all fruitlessly. In the end, I went to Richmond the next morning to simply plead my case and look for a flight, which they quickly provided me an hour later (as opposed to the following day, when the airline had scheduled me). I was exhausted, but at last got to Detroit, and after a yummy German meal, got home to Lansing. (photo: A snowy Detroit gave me a glimpse of what I could look forward to back in Michigan.)

I had a few days before Christmas to help my family get all of their shopping and decorating done in the midst of my annual dentist/eye doctor/etc. appointments. Christmas Eve we had our annual snackfest at my grandma's house and went to bed with mountains of snow outside. On Christmas itself, we exchanged gifts, watched "Ironman" (which made Mom's day, she loved it so much!), and cooked like crazy before going to my grandparents' house for dinner. It was a laid-back and scaled-back Christmas, but still quite enjoyable. (photos: Grandpa, Josh, and I on Christmas; Uncle Dirk, Grandma, and Aunt Penny; and all of the cousins.)



The day after Christmas, we were supposed to go to Grand Rapids to have a get together with my dad's side of the family. However, that morning, I got quite sick and spent all day watching my mom's new copy of "The Tudors." Luckily, I was also trying to recover before my GRE test the next morning. Still coughing, I woke up early and went to the test, only to have the national GRE system crash part of the way through and have my test rescheduled a couple of weeks later. I was still sick for the next couple of days and took it easy, only venturing outside rarely (though the snow had melted just after Christmas). (photos: Dad (wearing his award) and Josh at Chuck E. Cheese for their fantasy football league's award session; my cousin Allison and Uncle Mike with some of the trophies; and Mom and Leslie with their goodies.)



Just before returning to Virginia, some of my friends from high school and I got together, some for the first time since high school graduation. We met at one of our old favorite restaurants, chatted, and some of us continued on to hang out more downtown. It was great to see everyone, with many of them either engaged or moved away. The next morning, it was up to pack before leaving for Virginia (and to fit the theme of most of my trip home, half of my luggage didn't arrive). (photos: Ryan, Janay, and Karli at our Cheddar's high school gathering; Andrea, Pattí, and Wendy; and Paddy, me, and Andrea.)



The next day was New Year's Eve. I relaxed and readjusted to Virginia for the day before going to Mark's house to help him prepare for his party. It was a small, but very fun party. Jack even brought caviar, which I'd never tried until then. The holidays were over at last, after Mike and Christine's nearly-gluttonous "A Christmas Story" Party a few days later. I didn't have much time back in Virginia before I was soon heading to New Mexico to visit my dad... (photo: Mark trying caviar, with gusto.)

End of Fall Teaching -- From Fairfax to Chincoteague

Photos to come...

After a month in Loudoun County, I actually was able to teach in other parts of Virginia (not that I didn't enjoy Loudoun...)!

First up on my schedule after Loudoun was Accomack County, the more northern of the two counties on the Eastern Shore of Virginia (the little dingy of land dangling off the eastern half of Maryland and often left off generalized maps of Virginia). I was quite excited for this since I had the fun schedule: though not a full week, I got to teach at Chincoteague Island (yes, the same island from the book, for those "Misty of Chincoteague" fans out there) and Tangier Island (the little Mackinac-esque -- i.e. no cars and mostly tourist-based economy -- island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay). After a lovely drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and past NASA's Wallops Island center, I arrived to the small tourist town of Chincoteague accessible by a causeway and small bridge undergoing expansion and thus tons of construction. Chincoteague is a small town, since not too many people venture this way in mid-November, but I was glad to not have too many tourists clogging the small streets. I went that afternoon out to explore the southern end of Assateague Island National Seashore, a 37-mile-long barrier in both Maryland and Virginia. I hiked to the cool brick lighthouse and along the shore, excitedly calling family so that they could hear the ocean without needing a seashell. However, it was pretty darn cold that close to dusk and during a snow-wielding cold front on the beach, so my walks didn't last too long. Being on the Eastern Shore, an area known for its seafood (one of the main industries other than agriculture, which wasn't too much in season in November), I felt I had to find some for part of my dinner, which I did with some ridiculous oysters rockefeller (or something like that) before returning to my hotel for my usual evening (while on the road) full of trashy television.

The next day I was up and teaching before a bit of afternoon exploration and some more fun at the National Seashore. This time, I found some of the loose wild ponies for which the island is known (every summer they make a herd of the ponies "swim" from the barrier island to Chincoteague as a re-enactment of when they used to take the ponies to market to sell). The next day, I was supposed to teach at Tangier Island, and to get there, I'd have to rendezvous with the marine police for an early morning boat ride to the island. However, the boat ride was weather-permitting and it became clear the night before that the weather, with that pesky cold front, would be too rough for me to go the day I was scheduled. I was given a small teaching assignment (two classes and a district visit -- a piece of cake day) and, after staying an additional day, would try to get to Tangier Island again. I did the additional teaching which was carved from the scheduled teaching of two other coworkers teaching the mainland schools in the county. The school we taught at shocked me when I found this school, in nearly a ghost-town of a community due to the dying railroad industry, seasonality of farming, and threatened fishing industry, had a school dentist just like most schools have school nurses (probably because this community both didn't have a nearby dentist and that most people in this community probably couldn't afford one). They were good kids, and after, I met with my coworkers also staying at my new hotel in Onancock (the town I was in a year previously with the ship and from where I'd catch the boat to Tangier Island the next day) and went to dinner.

The next morning I was again up early and down at the marina to meet the boat. The officer picked me up before we went to pick up the county DARE officer and a group of hospice workers who all go to the island weekly. Apparently, they were all surprised that we were making the trip due to the conditions of the bay, and the ride met the reputation. I was excited for a choppy ride, just as I'd always been excited when taking the ferry to Mackinac, and loved that the boat was bouncing all over as it hit each wave. After the delay of picking up my fellow passengers and the hour boat trip, we arrived to the small island. During the summer, it sees a fair amount of tourists (no where near as many as Mackinac since it's more like a quaint B&B destination in the bay and has plenty of golf carts for transport on the island), but most of its residents are watermen who rely on the reduced and threatened fishing in the bay and are thus hurting even more than most people with the economy. I wheeled my box of artifacts the quarter mile to the k-12 school where, due to time constraints, I had to combine the 3rd and 4th-grade programs (there were still only 12 students total, and that was with a student from each grade absent). After, I had lunch with the kids (cafeteria-style chicken and dumplings and canned beets) who were thrilled that I ate at their table and took repeated votes of who was the coolest historical figure we'd discussed and debated historical questions (I loved it!). Then, the DARE officer and I went back to catch the boat back to the mainland. The ride back was not quite as choppy, but with my hurried lunch, I felt the ups and downs a bit more and was grateful for the minivan drive back home.

The week after Thanksgiving, I was scheduled up in Fairfax County near Alexandria, where both Megan and I stayed. We had fun wandering through Old Town Alexandria (my first time there), having a fantastic dinner in an Irish pub, and finding all sorts of tacky inauguration paraphernalia. We taught together the next day and then set out for Arlington to the Drug Enforcement Agency's museum. The DEA museum was both free and small and gave us the history of both drug use and drug policy enforcement in the country, including such fabulous artifacts as a recreated 1990s meth lab, copious opium den photos, grenades and tommy guns from early 20th-century agents, and a pair of alligator-skin platform shoes from undercover agents -- fabulous! We explored the area a bit more before heading back to the hotel to discuss a possible hiking trip to England in May when we'll both have a month off. I taught at a different school than Megan the next day since she was heading home, but I met my friend Callie (who had just moved to Alexandria a few months previously) for dinner and Christmas Tree shopping. I was a bit sick the next day and ended up teaching just part of my schedule and returned home for some rest before making an appearance at the staff holiday party (covered in a different entry).

The next week I taught with Dorothy in Pittsylvania County (staying in Danville, just on the border of North Carolina) for a few days. It was a typical trip, but I did have fabulous classes and even met a friend's niece in one of my classes. We had some yummy barbecue one day and laid pretty low for the few days we were out there since the weather was pretty nasty every day we were there. On the way back to Williamsburg, we absent-mindedly missed our turn and were stuck on nearly flooded back roads the entire way back. I only had one other local teaching assignment, but spent every other day I was in the office preparing for staff training and getting things ready before my month off beginning at the end of the following week. It was busy, but everything got done and I was very much ready for some time off.